As early as 1869 the Sunday parade of fashion on Fifth Avenue had become a feature of New York life. The Easter Parade still continues, but the fine equipages, with spirited horses and uniformed footmen, have given way to the automobile. Another notable feature of former days was the driving in Central Park. Here might be seen old Commodore Vanderbilt, driving his famous trotter, “Dexter”; Robert Bonner, speeding “Maud S.”; Thomas Kilpatrick, Frank Work, Russell Sage, and other horsemen driving to their private quarter- or half- mile courses in Harlem; leaders of society and dowagers in their gilded coaches; and even maidens of the “Four Hundred” driving their phaetons.
~ Fifth Avenue: Glances at the Vicissitudes and Romance of a World-Renowned Thoroughfare (1915)
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